This may be the year that hotel guests say goodbye to the front desk: Starwood has announced that its Aloft and W hotels will adopt mobile check-in this year. Guests who download the hotel group's app will then be able to check in on the go—and use their phones as room keys.

The exact roll out date hasn't yet been revealed, but the hotel company tells the _Wall Street Journal _that at least two properties—in Cupertino, California, and Manhattan—should have the technology by the end of March. The world's other 121 Aloft and W hotels will have the wireless keys by the end of the year, Starwood says.

At launch, the mobile key option is only open to Starwood Preferred Guest members who download the Starwood app to late-model iPhone or Android devices. Prior to check in, a guest will receive a virtual key that can then unlock a door with a Bluetooth connection, triggered by a physical gesture with the phone. The hotel group says power outages probably won't be a problem, thanks to constant monitoring of the locks' internal batteries.

The mobile key system has been in development for at least a year, under the cute working name "Project Sesame," the Journal reports. Starwood didn't go it alone: They worked with the Swedish lock company Assa Abloy on the technology.